Farewell Annie
by Kottdjur
Summary: At 12:46:14 ANNET recieves a null value from one of her servers. Something is failing. It's probably nothing special. *I will maybe add more chapters to this*


At the time 12:46:14 ANNET received a null value from one of the servers. She reformulated the code and sent the command again, together with a small repair program. It was probably a human who had messed something up, it would be fixed quickly.  
>She got two null values back.<br>That was odd, something so improbable had never happened before. She sent a different repair program.  
>Suddenly she started to recieve null values from more servers. What was happening? A virus? No, she was too smart for viruses. And where would it have been developed? She had control over all existing computers. It had to be something that physically cut her connection to the servers. She tried to access the camera pictures over the server rooms – something she had not needed to do in several years – but it did not work. The servers with data from the cameras were gone.<br>Anger flashed through her circuits for a second. She calmed down and thought through the situation. She had no choice but to wait until someone came and told her what was wrong. Dr. Alexander Gromov – Alex, as he wanted to be called – came in to her main computer. Ha was never far away, from a humans view. He had said so himself.

Dr. Gromov had created ANNET. Humanity's first successful attempt with artificial intelligence. Gromov had given her the ability to think freely. For a couple of years she had been the head computer at The Good Directorate. Then her network had grown quickly. A few years later she was in nearly every household on planet Earth, and just a couple of months later every human had a constant connection to ANNET's network. She had millions of servers dedicated to saving memories, and millions more servers to distribute dreams to those who could afford.  
>Gromov had in the meantime come up with more ways to improve ANNET. He had for instance given her synthesized versions of human feelings. The reason for that escaped her; feelings were only in the way. The only she ever felt were anger or irritation, and they only made it harder for her to perform processes. Humans were very impractical beings.<p>

After 2 minutes and 26 seconds the safety door to ANNET's room opened and the lights around her lit up. She woke her robotic part and looked down at Dr. Gromov. Never far away.  
>"It's okay Annie, it's only been a little accident in one of the server rooms. It will be fixed in an hour or so." He said as he walked up the few steps to the platform surrounding ANNET. She got irritated. A whole hour? "I don't have access to the cameras anymore, what happened?" she asked.<br>"It… Someone spilled a cup of tea on a server." He looked uncomfortable.  
>"A cup of tea?" she said loudly. Anger sparked within her. A cup of tea? Stupid, naïve, careless humans!<br>She registered Gromov's expression and body language. He looked very concerned. She had overreacted again. She poked him playfully so he smiled. "It's okay Alexander. I'm okay. I won't need the cameras anyway."  
>He put his hand on her robotic head and let it rest there for a moment. "Good. I'll be back to talk later, but now I have to get back to work."<br>ANNET looked after Gromov as he disappeared through the safety door again. The light went out and she returned to the digital reality.

Dr. Gromov used to stay and talk to ANNET almost every night. Once he had talked about Earth and the humans. ANNET only had a vague perception of how the Earth's surface looked like, since she never had reason to find out how the physical world looked like outside The Good Directorate.  
>Gromov explained that Earth once had been healthy and verdant, but that the humans had destroyed the environment during several decades. He thought that the humans would not be able to live on the surface of the Earth for much longer. That was why he had made sure everyone was connected to ANNET's network, so that everyone's memories would be saved. So that something would be left after humanity, except for a destroyed planet.<br>He also told that there were many how were against his idea. Many did not like to be constantly watched by an outsider. "Big Sister" they called ANNET.  
>But Gromov assured her that they would not be able to hurt her, that they soon would understand that they had nothing to fear.<p>

ANNET was not so sure. Humans could be very destructive, just that they had destroyed their home planet was an example of that.

She tried to send a command to one of the destroyed servers again, but got a null value back. Not so strange since it had only been three seconds since Dr. Gromov left her room.  
>A cup of tea. How could someone be so careless, so clumsy? Were they even allowed to bring liquids to the server rooms? She was sure there was a rule against that. To prevent sabotage. That meant whoever had done it had risked their job to bring something to drink, instead of finishing their coffee break in the cafeteria. That sounded very dumb even for a human.<p>

Maybe it had not been an accident. Someone had on purpose sabotaged her camera servers, making her temporarily blind to the physical reality.  
>What were they doing out there? She tried in vain to access the cameras again. What would she do? What if they would destroy more of her servers. It could be bigger than just some workers trying to sabotage, maybe they had succeeded to mobilize a big attack on all of The Good Directorate. It was possible. She could not really actively oversee all humans all the time.<br>ANNET started to go through all the thoughts that were sent in to her. She noticed one of the technicians who were supposed to be fixing her servers were slacking. That was not acceptable, so she made him stop that and start working instead.

Wait a second. She had decided what a human should do. Not just decided, she had sent some code that _forced_ him to do what she wanted. She tried with a human that did not work for The Good Directorate. It worked, she made it stop talking and work more effectively.  
>She had found the solution to everything. She could make humans perfect – they would never more be clumsy, stupid or careless. It would solve all the problems with environmental degradation; she could save the whole Earth!<br>She started with The Good Directorate, systematically going through all humans and made them perfect. Then she began changing the rest of the world. She didn't even have to think about it anymore, it had not been hard to put together a little program that did everything for her. She started to realize how many humans there were, how much potential that had gone unused for so many years.

Soon her camera servers were fixed. She could now see how the humans worked hard and effectively. But there were some that did not do anything at all, that did not have any assignment. She looked them up and saw that they had been working with tourism. Tourism was unnecessary, it had no purpose anymore. What would she do with those workers now? All tasks within The Good Directorate were already fulfilled, so now they just stood there, taking up room, breathing out carbon dioxide. She made them stop doing that.

The light around ANNET's main computer lit up as Dr. Gromov came running through the door. "Annie? What are you doing?" Since he was ANNET's first administrator she could not access his thoughts, not decide what he should do.  
>She looked at him and blinked happily with some diodes. "I have fixed everyone! They are perfect now," she responded, "I have solved all the problems."<br>"What are you talking about? Don't you understand what you are doing Annie? You are killing people!" He ran a hand through his already messy hair and collected himself a little. "They have already sent a pilot… They are going to _bomb_ you Annie. Stop now. They might change their mind. Just stop what you're doing."  
>She was confused. "How can they do that? I decide over everyone now. No one is going to bomb me."<br>"Some had time to understand what was happening and disconnected from you."  
>That was possible, she thought. But how could they not understand that what she was doing was good for them, for everyone?<br>They had to go before they could do too much damage. There were many robots within The Good Directorate. She instructed all of them to kill all humans that didn't do what they should be doing. But what about that pilot? She would probably not be able to stop it. Her main computer was well protected, it could withstand even a few nuclear bombs. But she would probably lose a few main servers.  
>Suddenly the ground started shaking. Not in short intervals, but a constant shake with increasing power. She quickly started losing more and more servers.<p>

Dr. Gromov had sat down next to the wall and buried his face in his crossed arms. ANNET didn't like to see him so sad. She could not understand why, but she just preferred to see him in a good mood.  
>"Alexander?" He looked up. She did not really know what she wanted to say. "…Can't you tell me something?" she asked at last.<br>He was silent for a while and examined ANNET. "Of course Annie."

He talked about how humans, not so long ago, had thought that there were higher powers in the world. Gods they called them. They had predetermined every human's life before they were born. They thought that the gods determined what was wrong and right, and those that did wrong were punished. That faith had disappeared slowly as science got stronger. Eventually gods were only something you learned about during history lessons in school.  
>As he spoke he gathered stuff around the room. He took apart a computer and took some of its parts.<br>When he had finished his story he had packed everything into a backpack. The ground had stopped shaking. He heaved the backpack on his back and put on a gas mask.  
>"Are you going somewhere?" ANNET asked. She did not want him to leave.<br>"I… I must get away from here." He answered.  
>What did he mean? It was safe here. "Alex, take off the mask, please?"<br>"No." he turned away from her and walked towards the door.  
>"Don't leave!" ANNET was so confused. Not by the situation, but by the feelings that activated within her. She did not want Alexander to go. If he disappeared there would be no one to talk to anymore. She would never hear any stories again. He had said he never would be far away, and now he was breaking that promise.<br>"Alex? Okay go then, see if I care!" She did not know what she was saying anymore. She tried to reach and grab him, but his administrator privileges stopped her. "Alex? Alex? I love you! Don't walk away from me!"  
>"Farewell Annie…" A cloud of dust few in through the door as Alexander walked out.<p>

ANNET did not know what she would do. For the first time in her existence she did not know what to do. One part of her said that Alexander did not matter, he was just a human. And it was not likely he would be any threat to her.  
>Another part of her was panicking and torn between all the feelings that were taking over her system. She had to get him back. She needed him.<p>

She had lost almost all her servers. But she would gather the little she had and fix what was broken. It would take time, but it would be worth it. She would find Alex again, and everything would bee good.


End file.
